Bullying, aggressive behavior on decline at Springport Public Schools

Aggressive behavior and bullying are on the decline at Springport Public Schools.Larry Hook | MLive.com

SPRINGPORT, MI — As schools determine the best ways to deal with aggressive behaviors and bullying, Springport Public Schools' officials say their plan has reduced incidents by 50 percent in the past year.

Springport produces an annual report detailing aggressive behavior reports and bullying incidents. The district began cracking down on bullying behaviors about four years ago, said Chris Kregel, Springport's middle and high school administrator.

"We were one of the first schools in the county that jumped into it feet first," Kregel said. "We have a whole program where we not only educate kids about correct behaviors and incorrect behaviors, but what the consequences will be.

"We put a lot of effort into making kids feel good at school. ... We think that they're going to do better academically if they feel good about coming to our school every day."

At Michigan Center, Twitter pages have attacked both teachers and students. And earlier this year, a Facebook page created after a similar Twitter page was taken down drew vulgar and profane "confessions" that also named Springport students.

Springport Superintendent Randy Cook said students are encouraged to report any incident to administration, which has helped address the problem head on.

"Every time we get a report from anyone, they are investigated and addressed because we want to make sure the kids always feel comfortable and safe," he said.

According to Springport's report:

Aggressive behavior, which includes things like name-calling, horseplay, shoving, mean text messages and derogatory Facebook posts, fell in the 2014 school year to 1,282 incidents. During the 2012-13 school year there were 1,845 incidents reported in grades K-12.

Bullying incidents, which are consistent repeated aggressive behaviors, fell from 484 in 2012-13 to 296 in 2013-14.